The Big Event, Southern Illinois University’s (SIU) annual day of community service is starting up again March 26.

The Big Event is part of a program that helps benefit the community by hosting different volunteer sites throughout Carbondale. 

Michael Holtgrave, director of site leaders, said this event has been around for years and continues to make an impact.

“In 1982, Joe Nussbaum, the Vice-President of the Student Government Association at Texas A&M, started The Big Event as a way for students to say thank you to the surrounding community,” Holtgrave said. 

Marketing executive Tadzia Lee said the movement was shared across the nation.

“Now hundreds of universities at home and abroad participate in The Big Event,” she said. 

To become a site for the Big Event, organizations have to register through SIU’s Center for Service-Learning and Volunteerism. They can also reach out to the director of sites.

“Each interested site must go through a screening process to ensure they possess sufficient insurance coverage, and each site must be a certified non-profit organization,” Holtgrave said. 

Laurie Geiger, a board member of St. Francis Animal CARE, said Holtgrave emailed her with questions, and after a few back and forth emails, they met briefly at the shelter to look over the area to be worked on. 

“St. Francis is grateful to be selected because shelter work is hard work, and our staff spend their days taking care of our numerous cats and dogs,” Geiger said. “We rely on volunteers to help with large tasks that would be costly and time-consuming, so getting our parking lot and landscaping ready for spring is huge.” 

Lee said students can partake in many volunteer opportunities.

“Students take the day to volunteer at different locations in the area picking up trash, painting, packing and organizing,” Lee said.

Some of the current sites for this year include Rainbow Cafe, Wesley Foundation, Brehm Preparatory School, For Kids Sake, Touch of Nature and St. Francis Animal CARE, Lee said. 

Geiger said that there will be eleven volunteers at her site. 

Sites compile a task list for volunteers and provide information such as dress code and location. 

“At St. Francis volunteers will be spreading gravel, pulling weeds, spreading mulch, and digging up large edging rocks and resetting them,” Geiger said. 

If there’s time after that, the volunteers will spend time with the big dogs, Geiger said.  

“We had eight volunteers last year and it was a great group of students who did the same thing and they got the job done and done well,” Geiger said.   

Jeremey Robbins is the head of Brehm Preparatory School. 

“We have hosted groups of SIU volunteers in the past, and it is exciting to host Big Event volunteers.  It is a pleasure getting to know each of the students, and their work will have a big impact on our campus and our students and school community at Brehm,” Robbins said

Holtgrave said select individuals who applied to be in charge of supervising volunteers are elected site leaders. 

“The process includes an application and an interview as well as training,” Holtgrave said. 

Site leaders check volunteers in, make sure they know what the tasks are and provide overall supervision. 

“There are morning and afternoon shifts. The morning shift goes from nine to twelve and the afternoon shift goes from one to four,” Holtgrave said. 

Holtgrave said all participants must attend SIU and no visitors or students from other programs or schools can participate. 

“SIU students who wish to volunteer can sign up by registering through the volunteer portal” Lee said. 

Robbins said the web portal to recruit volunteers was easy to use, and the University staff coordinating activities were friendly and helpful.

“As a retired teacher, I feel volunteering is a vital part of growing up and becoming a productive citizen. I incorporated it into my classroom curriculum, so I think The Big Event provides an excellent volunteer opportunity as well as helping individuals learn to work as a group,” Geiger said. 

Robbins said Brehm Preparatory School and OPTIONS Transitions to Independence have had long standing connections with SIU since Brehm was founded in 1982. 

“Some of our students and graduates go on to SIU, and many Salukis have had jobs or done field work in our programs,” Robbins said. 

Staff reporter Joel Kottman can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter: @JoelKottman 

To stay up to date with all your Southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

Advertisement